Who I Am

Jacob W. Parish, CFP®

My name is Jacob Parish and I was raised to be a financial expert; at least it seems like that sometimes. My father has been an advisor since before I was born. Growing up, in and out of his office countless times, I learned the basics of investing and the value of making good financial decisions early in life. This created a passion that I pursued through college, where I graduated with a degree in finance from Arizona State University, and still have today.

I’ve met people making really good money doing really silly things. Living paycheck to paycheck, not taking the basic steps to protect themselves and their families, and not planning for the future at all. It absolutely drives me nuts. With the right guidance and encouragement, these are people that have great potential to be financially successful. This in mind, I’ve created a practice that allows me to cater to an audience otherwise ignored by traditional advisors. That’s why I do this-I was tired of seeing people I liked, friends of mine, not achieve financially what they all had the ability to.

What I Believe

1. Financial planning isn’t just for the already wealthy. Whether you’re starting out, or you’ve just hit that millionaire milestone, you deserve good advice. If I believe we can successfully work together, we will.

2. Financial advice should be understandable and actionable. You shouldn’t need two hours and a dictionary to follow it.

3. The only sustainable basis for a successful advisor/client relationship is absolute mutual trust. I will earn your trust by telling you the undiluted truth-as I have the ability to see it-all the time.

4. The only legitimate foundation for advice-and the only basis for any investment-is a plan. The best way for us to relate to each other successfully is through a plan we’ve created together. A portfolio or specific investment is never an end in itself; it is only a tool.

5. The biggest factor in long-term, real-life financial outcomes is our behavior. And one of my primary values to my clients is as a behavioral coach.

6. In the long run, and that’s the only rational way to invest, the only sane definition of money is purchasing power. Your dollar loses some of its purchasing power every day due to inflation.

7. Equities, the partial ownership of the great companies in America and the World, have historically been the most effective at preserving and growing purchasing power over the long term.

8. The economy, the markets and future relative performance of similar investments cannot be consistently predicted, or timed. But that is OK.

9. No one can consistently gain an advantage over the equity market by moving in and out of it. I don’t attempt to predict the outcome or the effects of current events.

10. Uncertainty is the only certainty. Whether in the markets or the world, it doesn’t seem that we move from periods of uncertainty to periods of certainty. It’s more like we go from one problem to the next. As the legendary investor Sir John Templeton once said, “Among the four most dangerous words in investing are ‘It’s different this time’.” As such, I believe in long-term optimism.